Something About Nothing

I have been online friends with Judy Coates Perez for . . . a very long time. I admire her painted quilts and have wanted to learn all I can from her. I have her two DVD's, regularly read her blog and ask her questions which she is always generous enough to answer but I have wanted to meet her in person and take a class from her but we seemed to keep missing each other. Today, this long sought after goal, finally came to pass in Houston! This is Judy and her very talented daughter, Indigo. The class was called: Tsukiniko All Purpose Inks and we learned how to paint with these inks on fabric.  I liked my leaves and sphere from the morning but my flower making needs some work. And this is my piece from the afternoon. I really learned a lot from this little guy. One of the most important things I learned was that thread play covers painting mistakes. hahaha I'm looking forward to using the Tsukiniko Inks more! I'm linking up this week to Off th...

As I was searching the internet for sketchbook ideas . . .one thing led to another which led to another which led to marbled paper.  I remembered reading about using inks on shaving cream to make marbled paper.  I didn't have instructions just a general sense of what I should do so instead of my usual hours spent researching before I do anything, I stepped out of my box and went for it. 1) A thick layer of cheap shaving cream on a plastic lid. 2) Drops of acrylic ink 3) Run the end of a paint brush through those drops to create a crazy pattern. I was too excited creating to photograph the first try so these photos are of the second run.  The shaving cream wasn't as pristine but it still made a nice print! The paper comes off the foam looking messed up. OH NO did I totally mess it up? Scrape off the shaving cream. . . . . . and there is a pretty cool image. The left is the first run and the right is the second run. The paper is from the inside co...

I've been playing catch up on my Journal quilts. Here is  #3:  Rejoice is a background of a few random fabric paints, covered by my Sharpie marker drawing of a tree branch, singing bird and word.  The bird is painted onto of the background with acrylic inks.  I quilted around the marker lines and then decided it needed a few more leaves quilted into the background.   #4:  Swirls and Circles   is fabric painted using stencils and Setacolor paints that I used to practice some new free motion quilting designs I learned from this great website .   #5:  Flower Man is made up of pieces left over from the  Journal cover  I blogged about earlier in the week.  I liked the odd shape it took and so I decided not to square it up.  Once finished I thought it looked like a fat flower man. #6:  Feathering My Nest is made from a couple of recycled (upcycled?) Shout Color Catchers  I had thrown in the wash with the fabric I ice ...

I was so busy during the  Utah Quiltfest  that I didn't take many pictures. One reason I didn't get pictures was that I forgot my camera when I taught my lunchbags class.  However I did have my phone:  Nine out of the ten students finished their lunch and sandwich bags. One of the students did not bring her machine down because it was too much for her to carry. All of the ladies did a great job! I did manage to bring my camera and take two photos of the set up for my Painting on Fabric class. I showed quilts I have made using different paints and also displayed some books about painting on fabric.   Once the class started it was all lecture and I think I yammered on about various paints and techniques for  over an hour and a half and about 10 glasses of water that my wonderful angel supplied me with.  I had 17 students and only 16 handouts (there were some last minute sign ups I didn't know about).  I was fortunate enough to have two friends in th...